In the recent episode of the Pen Addict podcast, Myke was lamenting that he has fewer and fewer opportunities to use his pens, pencils and paper. I fear this is probably true for many of us. The world we live in is increasingly digital. Many of us can easily live our lives digitally. We can easily have Google calendar take care of our scheduling needs, Evernote handle our note taking needs, iTunes Music or Spotify for our music and Day One for our journalling.

As fountain pens or analog writing tools users, we are a bunch of people who have made the decision that we like and enjoy using these “old fashioned” tools. These tools speak to us in a way that the digital equivalent do not. At least not on a similar level. However at the same time, we must not close our eyes on how these digital tools can help organise our life better and easier.

Personally, I use both the analog and digital to run my life. However I keep my work and personal life separate. Most of my personal to-do’s and appointments is kept on my Hobonichi. I do have a copy of appointments on Fantastical - well just in case I guess. I refer to my digital calendar when I am on the go but I would switch to my paper version when I am at home or at the office. Well maintaining both systems isn’t tenable for everyone so here are some suggestions on how to use your analog tools more often.

InCoWriMo - It’s a month long letter writing session is just the perfect time to put those pens to use.

Journalling - Personally I do my journalling on my Day One app but you can always start one.

Bullet Journal - This is a flexible system to keep track of different things. That’s how I handle most of my personal to-do’s.

Writing to penpals - Some of the people I write to during InCoWriMo become my penpals throughout the year. This way it is rare for a week to do by without me writing a reply letter to a pal!

Writing your text instead of typing them out - Ok this might be taking things a little far but you could do this only for that special someone?